This is another step towards making EGI an integral part of the computing resources offered to European researchers and their international collaborators.

“MAPPER is a science driven project with the aim to exploit existing European e-infrastructures for a new mode of computing,” says project coordinator Alfons Hoekstra. “To do so MAPPER has brought together a strong European consortium covering the chain from the infrastructure to the science applications, and by closely collaborating with EGI and PRACE.”

The main goal of the MAPPER project is to develop “an environment for distributed multiscale computing, consisting of dedicated programming and execution tools, and production quality services that are needed to support this mode of computing,” explains Hoekstra.

The MAPPER focus on multiscale is important given that many areas of research focus on investigating phenomena at every level of the system, from the microscopic to the global and everything in between. Climate and weather modelling are important examples, being able to take into account the global state of the weather, but also local conditions, is important in understanding how the entire system works and its possible future direction.

The MAPPER project, started in October 2010, aims to develop tools, software and services to maximise the usage of e-infrastructures by this community.

Starting with 5 specific areas - fusion, clinical decision making, systems biology, nano-science and engineering - they will help each create the tools needed for a specific problem within that discipline. They will ensure that the solutions being offered to researchers are not only appropriate but also provide access to them.